VMs Approve Proposed Bylaws and CCRs Amendments

Before taking their votes on community-wide amendments to Westchase deed restrictions and Bylaws, Westchase Voting Members’ meeting kicked off their Jan. 10 meeting with two quick, unanimous, final votes on neighborhood-specific guidelines.

The first approved the Villas of West Park Village’s new exterior color palette and the second approved Stamford’s new black, metal mailboxes.

Voting Members (VMs) then turned to the main business of the meeting, casting final votes on proposed community-wide amendments to Westchase’s Bylaws, which govern how the association does its business, and the Westchase Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CCRs), which include use and appearance rules for Westchase’s residential properties.

In November Westchase homeowners were sent ballots by mail, which they were asked to complete and return, indicating their support or opposition for each proposed change. Under the rules, VMs had to cast these ballots as indicated by their homeowners.

Upon entering the meeting, each VM was given a ballot to cast votes for their village’s residents who had not turned in ballots. As part of the document review process, back in August, the VMs first reviewed and gave tentative approval to the proposed CCRs and Bylaws sent to homeowners for review and voting. At that meeting, there was little discussion about the proposed CCR changes except the one related to street parking, which VMs stated continues to be an issue in most villages. During August’s initial review of proposed Bylaws changes, the one garnering the most discussion was a proposed restriction against a homeowner serving on the Westchase Community Development District (CDD) and Westchase Community Association (WCA) Board of Directors at the same time. Back in August, VMs killed that proposed rule change.

While VMs’ votes on the multiple amendments were being tallied by Association Manager Debbie Sainz (each had to win the support of a supermajority of homeowners as cast by VMs), the group addressed a number of other business items.

WCA President Ruben Collazo explained that Jan. 21 would be Westchase’s 25th anniversary party at Glencliff Park from 1-4 p.m. He said that volunteers were still needed for the event, held after deadline for the February WOW. VM Mary Griffin (Single Family Homes of West Park Village) asked, “Have the neighbors (of Glencliff) been warned?”

Sainz replied, “Yes, a letter was sent to the residents.”

VM Carl Longnecker (Villas of West Park Village) took the opportunity to ask for help with a number of street lights that are out near the Villas, close to David Weekley Homes’ new townhome construction site. “In the area, there are eight out now, not just on the construction site,” he said.

Several VMs described having the same problem in their villages and making repeated attempts to get them resolved by calling and entering the outages online. Collazo noted that the lighting problem and the damage cited by one of the villa owners would be discussed at the next meeting with David Weekley management. Collazo also reported that the expected WCA annexation vote of the new development, originally scheduled for January, would be postponed. Collazo stated that WCA attorneys had come up with a full page of verbiage to change Westchase’s governing documents, which they had discovered was necessary for the annexation. Collazo added the WCA and David Weekley attorneys were still discussing them.

VM Patrick O’Brien (Keswick Forest) raised an issue of meeting attendance. He stated he would be away for four to five months in the summer and his alternate had work requirements that might cause him to miss the summer meetings. O’Brien stated they would therefore like to appoint another alternate. Collazo, however, responded, “No one can sit in unless elected by your village.”

O’Brien asked, “If we get majority votes [from our village], can we vote for this person to be an alternate?”

Collazo responded, “We don’t have a provision for a special election [outside of a village’s normally scheduled biannual election].”

Collazo said he would speak to the WCA attorney to see what could be done.

VM Cynde Mercer (The Bridges) asked, “Has anybody ever considered to see if Spectrum would put in facility-wide WIFI free of charge?”

Griffin (Single Family Homes of West Park Village) agreed, saying, “Yes, someone should approach the company and ask them to do this.”

Collazo said he would follow up.

By this time the votes had been tallied and Sainz reported that all the proposed CCRs and Bylaws had passed. Sainz went over each vote with a projected display of the computer. VMs applauded the work done by Document Review Committee Chair Dale Sells, who said, “Don’t forget the people on the committee.”